Our New Home

At last all our stuffs arrived from Korea last Saturday. At last I got my lovely computer. At last I got my precious recipe books. At last Iki could happily "see" his toys again. At last we could eat with proper dishes, not borrowed ones, not with Thomas and Friends printed ones :p. And At last we could have really normal life. It was not comfortable having everything in temporary!!

So let me introduce you to my new kitchen. Where I may spend more than 50% of my life at.



We stay at Hiro's company's apartment complex. There is one dorm and about 5 apartment buildings here. There's a gym, but could only be used by the wives during weekdays from 9-5, which is impossible for me to enter with Iki. There's also one kindergarten inside, located right in front of our building, but Iki couldn't enter it before he's three y/o. There are a lot of children living here, so I think Iki is starting his social life step by step (and so I am!). Everyday I meet the wives and we have pretty formal small talks. In contrast to Korean, Japanese are "bit afraid" of foreigner. We have to give good impression to each other too. One's husband could be the manager or supervisor, or director :))

So far I like our new life here. Within a month I already could feel that this is a very nice home. And after we got all our stuffs last Saturday I fall in love even more with this place :p. Iki also got used to this new home quickly.



Too bad, this new home is AGAIN just a temporary home. Hiro MIGHT be sent abroad again around March. Where? still company's secret :p

Snowing and Today's Rant

It was snowing today. The first snow in Tokyo this winter. Weather forecast said that the temperature today was the lowest this year, though for me Tokyo is still much warmer compared to Incheon. Once Iki knew that it was snowing outside, he stopped eating his breakfast and asked me to bring him out. He really got excited and didn't want to continue his breakfast so I took him out after Hiro left to the office. He was very happy to play outside, trying to catch the snowflakes, and cleaning his jacket and trousers from them :p.

He enjoyed playing that he didn't want to go back home. I ate super spicy Indonesian food yesterday so this morning my stomach gave me huge kicks as the reaction. I really needed to go to the toilet but this boy completely ignored me. So I was just squating helplessly, felt cold because of my own sweat, with goosebumps all over my body until he got wet and satisfied playing. And when we finally got home and I could sit on the toilet in relieved, he cut me off and said he wanted to pee URGENTLY. Argghhh (>.<)

I let him playing with snowflakes again in the afternoon so I thought he's tired and would nap soon. But at home he was still very active! I laid on the floor beside his bed (am not allowed still to lay on his bed), pretending to sleep, but that boy was jumping around my body, tapping my body in full power, while screaming "CHA CHA CHA". I started to feel cold so I told him to stay on his bed and sleep, but again he ignored me. I was tired so I closed my eyes, and covered my ears with my palms to reduce his loud CHA CHA CHA voice. It was when his head hit my pubic bone in his full power. God, It was so damn painful and I totally knew intan's feeling! I was about to shout at him when I saw him smirking while holding his head. I just didn't know what to say and what to do. I left the room and told him to sleep by himself. And he did......only few minutes after I left!

I could breath again then, so I did my houseworks. But it didn't last long. I heard Iki's cry. He sat on his bed, sweating. I was speechless when I saw him wearing his mitten (earlier today he could put his mittens on by himself for the first time). I tried to make him confortable by removing the mittens and his socks but he got angry and told me not to do that. So during his 1.5 hours sleeping, he woke up like 4-5 times, and got angry whenever I tried to remove either the mittens or the socks. Again I lost chance to give myself a little rest today.

Hhhhhhh....what a day.....!!!!

Oh FYI, he wore those damn mittens until Hiro's back home and we were ready for dinner!

Lonely :p

Yesterday night Iki started to sleep in his own room alone. At last I could sleep on my very own bed by myself, without any strong kicking from Iki.

He got really excited when we prepared his futon (Japanese style bed on the floor). Iki, who usually hated to use blanket even voluntarily asked me to put the blanket on him properly. I think he's glad to get his own territory. Before sleeping he told me in his limited vocabulary: "bebeh no" while tapping his chest (translated: I'm not a baby). I was not even allowed to lay down on his bed :p



We put wireless inter-phone in his room so that I could hear anything happens there. I shouldn't worry he would wake up midnight and cry a lot because I could run in a second I heard his voice from the speaker beside my bed.

In fact I felt lonely that I couldn't get into deep sleep last night. I checked his room many times just to make sure that he's alright and gave him little kisses. I hope I will get used to sleep without him as soon as he's used to sleep by himself :))

And today was Hiro's first day back to work again after spending the whole one month with us. Since I knew him I'd never spent 1 full month, 24 hours together with him, and neither had Iki. So last holiday was our first full month family gathering and we (Iki and I especially) got spoiled a little bit too much. I almost forgot how tiring it was to spend a whole day only with Iki, and so did Iki. He cried when Hiro left his morning and actually I also can't help not to wet my eyes :p. I could understand Iki's feeling because I felt it too. We were "lonely" hahaha

Indomie....seleraku :p

Following up my previous posting about Indonesian Food-sick, Hiro accompanied me to Ueno while his parents took care of Iki at home. Beforehand he looked for information on the internet where exactly the asian food market is. It's located at the underground of Ameyoko building, in the middle of the fish market. I felt like I read about this once at Nova's blog but couldn't remember the detail. It was my first time going to Ueno area and I found completely different shopping environtment. I've never seen such cheap market in Tokyo so far, though the price of goods at the Asian market was ridiculous for me. Especially that I know the real price in Indonesia. Yeah well....those actually "cheap" goodies are imported goods here!



Anyway I bought few Indonesian ingredients. I found tempe for 500 yen (around 45,000 IDR), Indomie 100 yen, chilli 300 yen for 100 gr (I would got 1 kg in Indonesia with that price!), Bawang merah, bakso babi, bakso ikan, Lemongrass, Sambal ABC, santan, Tamarind, and my very important Kecap Asin ABC among others. I saw Labu Siam and Banana leaf too but didn't have any idea how to cook/use them yet.
The fishes at the fish market are sooooo cheap!!! We bought Sujiko (young salmon roe) for 1000 yen and Hoke fishes 1000 yen for 3. We also got Tuna sashimi (toro and chu toro), big ones, for 2000 yen totally! The seller said that he gave us such price because the wife's cute (read: me) hehehhe. I'll come again sometime in the future to that place for those cheap fishes, and maybe some Indonesian spices (I prefer my mom or friends sending them to me though hahaha)

So yesterday morning I had this 100 yen Indomie goreng as breakfast. With sunny side up egg and sujiko as toppings, and additional 3 fresh chillies for taste. Oh man....It was really good!! Indomie....seleraku....... :p

Indonesian Food-sick

Been eating mostly Japanese food for this 1 month. I thought I could survive that I put all my Indonesian food supply leftover inside our shipping stuffs instead of bringing some as hand luggage. Indeed now I'm suffering of Indonesian Food-sick, all food I also missed a lot at this time. Most of all I miss the spicy-salty-and sour taste of Babi Rica-rica!!



And damn Sheila's blog about her Culinary Paradise during her visit to Indonesia!!! It made me drooling even worse. Don't have time to go to Ueno and find some Indonesian spices around that place, especially because I don't know where it is exactly :p. Indonesian restaurants here are expensive and I'm too afraid it's not worthed the taste. All I could do is waiting for our shipping boxes, which will exactly come next Saturday!!

Arrrghhhh another suffering week (>.<)

Ski

After spending more than two weeks unpacking, shopping, and building furnitures; at last yesterday we had a one-day ski trip for refreshing.

We started early in the morning and headed to Omiya station. Hiro bought discounted tickets from travel agent. A package of Shinkansen tickets and lift to the ski area for 16,400 Yen for two persons. It took about 1.5 hours from Omiya station to Gala Yuzawa station by Shinkansen (bullet train). The train was not crowded during weekdays so Iki could get his own seat. He really enjoyed the journey: looking outside the window, eating his obento, and also reading magazine.

Almost at the end of the journey, the Shinkansen went through a very long tunnel and we found a completely different view after that tunnel. A world covered with thick snow. What a two different world separated by a long tunnel!

The last station is connected to the ski resort. We changed our clothes into ski wear and Hiro rented the ski equipment for him, then we took gondola to the ski area. The view from Gondola was amazing. It was my second time being there, and still I had to hold my breath.

Iki was really excited. He was already looking forward for this journey so ran directly outside to play as we arrived. We had late lunch because he didn't want to get inside the restaurant. We brought him to a special area for small children, put him on a slide, pull him uphill and let him slide down freely. He screamed happily and asked for more and more. Well, pulling him uphill and running as fast as I could to stop him sliding were really a sport for me hahaha

He also had his first "ski" with Hiro. His feet are still to small for kids' ski board so Hiro just put him on his board and they slided together. They really enjoyed it and hopefully Iki's feet would get bigger on our next ski trip. Hiro is a good skier, I enjoyed watching him skiing. Sexy :p

We really had so much fun. Everyone enjoyed playing together. Was really a nice refreshing.

After playing a lot Iki got really tired and sleepy. He helplessly hanging on my lap, couldn't open his eyes anymore, when I changed his ski wear. He slept again almost the whole journey back to Tokyo.

Now we're back in Tokyo, back from our short getaway, ready waiting for the next 50 boxes coming from Korea within few days. Only God knows how to put all our stuffs inside this "already full" apartment (@_@)

Accident

Just got back from georgeous sukiyaki dinner at my parents in law's house when I saw new messages mark on my Indonesian number's mobile phone. It's from my mum and my brother. My sister got an accident, will be sent to manado asap.

I lost my power reading that. My sister is now working at Damao island, Sangihe Talaud. It's a very small island where there's no phone line, let alone mobile phone signal. My family in manado also don't know her real condition. My bother told me that she got her head injured at a motorbike accident during her duty. She's unconcious and vomitted a lot. And since she is the only doctor at that small island, no one could help her now.

God, I'm scared to death now......

Learning and busy. Or busy learning...? :p

Papa-chan is still on holiday for two weeks now but we couldn't go anywhere else for refreshing yet. There're just so much to buy, to do, and to learn (esp. for me). Within two weeks I must learn new Japanese recipes, make research which store sells the cheapest price for different stuffs, generally to adapt with my new life here.

Hiro translates new recipes everyday and explains a lot of Japanese culture and habit. I must learn Kanji characters also now, since Hiro later on would be very busy and might not be available every night to help me out. Everyday Hiro gives me 4 kanji characters to learn. Started with cooking glossaries kanji and our family's name. After I finished with my Kanji "homework" then I'm allowed to touch computer (which is usually after 1 a.m!).

I still do blogwalking sometimes from my mobile phone but I couldn't leave any comments yet. I'm so sorry but I think I would make it up later on after I get my life rythm back, and especially after I get my computer too (it's still on the way here from Korea with other boxes). I'll also upload photos at that time because I couldn't transfer photos from my camera to this iBook, and papa-chan's computer is free only after 2 a.m. I miss chatting with my friends too, and hope I could catch up the latest rumors. Thanks for still visiting and dropping comments here, please excuse me for a while because of this learning thing. I'll be back active in this cyber world again soon. Pretty soon (^___^)


And Ohhhh!!! I must also start my exercise again since my tummy is getting fatty now (@_@)

New Year

Our first new year in Japan.



We woke up really late today and I cooked ozouni in a rush. It's Japanese traditional food for New Year. Toasted mochi (rice cake) in clear chicken soup.



Japanese also eats Osechi during New Year. Detail story about Osechi can be read here in Wikipedia. Osechi could be really expensive. At department stores it's sold for about USD 100 each box.
We just bought the cheap package at Seiyu, nearest supermarket. I didn't look that bad, though hehehe. And it did taste pretty good :p



I planned to go to Japanese shrine to see how Japanese celebrate New year there. But Hiro is sick. So we just shopped some more food supply at the nearest supermaket and then I co



This is our simple way to celebrate new year this year. We are still exhausted with this moving thing, and still have long to do list. But we do hope this year would be at least as amazing as last year. And I do hope yours would be too. Happy New Year (^___^)